Infants and Children

Osteopathy can benefit children at all stages of their development as their bodies are adapting to stresses and strains and learning how to react to stimulus. It is vital to maintain good physical health during childhood and the teenage years and to be as free from restrictions as possible. Physical habits learnt here will help determine health, posture and function throughout later life.

An infant’s skull is designed to provide maximum accommodation to the compressive forces of labour and minimum trauma to the developing brain. The bones at the top of the head are soft and pliable to enable them to overlap to allow the passage of the head through the birth canal. A certain amount of moulding occurs and resolves after delivery assisted by crying, suckling and yawning.

However, the flexibility which allows moulding to occur also allows the cranial bones and membranes to become strained and the bones may not return to their normal positions after delivery. This can happen if labour and delivery is is unusually prolonged or exceptionally fast, if the baby presents as a breech birth, if the baby is large for the mother, or if intervention is necessary for example a forceps, ventouse or caesarian delivery.

Osteopathic checking and monitoring of childhood development is one of the best ways of reducing the risk of musculoskeletal and other general health problems going undetected and causing difficulties later in life. Prevention is always better than cure, and osteopathic treatment for children can play just as big a part as dental and eye checks in maintaining the good health that should be an integral part of growing up.